No serious military forces, no manageable infrastructure, a single banking cartel, a single trade cartel, etc. It's even less reasonable than Herbert's galaxy-spanning feudalism; in that case, at least, nodes of infrastructure surrounding a noble family basically dealt with their own affairs. It's reasonable to manage one planet, so long as you have the right technology and people. But a republic (or an empire) with a single governmental structure spanning an entire galaxy with almost no real infrastructure? Not possible.
Yup. A few TOS episodes (Charlie X, The Empath, etc) had people with mental abilities, and once Spock and Kirk replicated the conditions, they gained the abilities (Plato's Stepchildren). They would have looked down on the idea that people used these abilities and a religion surrounding them to essentially create a theocracy. Even in the Old Republic and Clone War eras, if you're a Jedi you're automatically a general...wtf? A padawan is a general? She's like 15!
This is a fundamentally immature, grade-school bully's way of thinking. "I have to make sure I look tough, otherwise everyone will beat me up." It's the attempt to look tough all the time that puts others off and makes enemies all over the planet.
How about trying to look civilized? Is that nearly as important? How about looking reasonable or intelligent? Nope, it's all about looking tough...which is exactly why the actual civilized countries (you know...the ones that have existed long enough to know "looking tough" isn't nearly as important as, say, having a functional infrastructure) can't take us seriously no matter how much we puff ourselves up. No one cares. War is a stupid way and simplistic way of trying to solve complex social, economic, and philosophical problems. It's just like the bully beating up the nerd for "talking smart" to him. Sure the bully will win on the physical level in that moment...but that was never really the level that counted, and the nerd will have the last laugh as he makes sure to order his fries "fresh and piping hot" from the bully a few years later.
And so we destroy ourselves and the great American experiment comes to an end less than three centuries later. The bully of the world flails and screams while no one takes it seriously and the world moves on. We can't solve our problems with infrastructure, the economy, the government...hell, we can't even deal with diversity in our own citizenry. The white and entitled get more and more anxious every year as it looks like their privilege is getting challenged. We can't balance the budget, half the population doesn't believe in basic science, can't do math, and can barely read. But we can kick ass! We have the biggest, baddest weapons and a fighting force second to none! It doesn't matter that we're stupid, barbaric, brutes...we can kick their ass! Yeah! America! America! America!
The whole time the EU, Canada, and the rest of the First World is hiding their smile and shaking their heads to each other, like the adults at a family reunion while the drunk, belligerent, mildly retarded country cousin keeps wandering around, shoving people, and demanding "What?! What?! Wanna fight about it?!? Huh?! Huh?! I'm not a paper tiger! I'm tough, I'm tough, see?!? SEE?!?!"
I think you are either misunderstanding or are being purposely obtuse. The poster is basically saying the US is morally equivalent to that fascist (why the capital?) dictatorship ruled over by a mass-murdering psychopath. Except it's ruled over by a whole lot of mass-murdering psychopaths. The very fact that you completely ignore the point involving Iraqi civilians killed by US soldiers in a war we started to "liberate" a people who never asked for our help or interference pretty much proves their point.
Your opinions of other country's governments shouldn't get to dictate their governments. To say that the US is somehow special, that out of all the world, the US has the right to dictate terms to other countries about how they govern, is nothing but jingoism and crass exceptionalism. It just doesn't pass the straight-face test. We are not special, we are not different, the rules aren't different for us.
Do you think it would be just fine for, say, the EU to "liberate" the US citizens from their corporate and governmental masters? There are plenty of people in this country who hate and despise the current regime, just like the Iraqis who "cheer" us for coming and bombing their homes. I, for one, would welcome it, I'm a US citizen, isn't that equivalent to the Iraqis who are "happy" the US came and got rid of Saddam? Why would it be different? US authorities torture, murder, and ignore the law to get what they want, and there is a partnership between the government and corporations...that sounds pretty fascist (by the actual definition of fascism, written by the person who started the movement, Mussolini) to me. Why shouldn't other countries come and "liberate" us?
You complain about moral relativism...what else is it when you think we're special, that the US has special rights and privileges that no other nation has? If you want actual moral absolutism, you have to judge your own country by the same rules you judge others, and what you say is good and right to do to others must apply equally to the US. If it is acceptable for the US to attack and displace another nation's government because we don't agree with it, then it is acceptable for other countries to do it to us. And don't cry "But we're America, we're the good guys. They don't have any REAL reason to liberate us because we're RIGHT". Every country thinks they are right. Every form of government claims it's the right one.
Of course, you can just choose to roll with your jingoism and say "But the US is REALLY right." I don't know how you would justify that, other than on the basis of it being your "team", but Americans have historically always been really good at moralizing at others while having just as dubious a moral standing as anyone else, so good luck with that.
I download stuff from Oracle all the time. What were they downloading that makes them evil wrong and bad?
And yes, I did read the linked articles. All it says was they downloaded software and docs as part of offering support to their clients. Like I said, I do that all the time. What were they downloading that makes it illegal?
That happened a long time ago. This at least concedes that human minds are incapable of (or unwilling to) deal with that level of complexity, so we are going to use machines to deal with it. It's honest, and it might even work for a while, further avoiding the inevitable consequences of our economic system. That's all we can really hope for. Nothing can save an economy that doesn't really make anything, yet uses more resources than anyone else.
It's not replacing humans, it just improves profit making for those who want to trade. It's only one part of stock exchanges. That's fine too - if you can come up with an advanced algorithm that nets you profit, sure use it. Everyone on slashdot would.
It's not replacing humans yet. And that's fine. When it does, investors will simply move to a higher level of abstraction and a new level of economic engagement will come into being. Larger, more subtle patterns will become apparent and we will simply have a new game to play.
The only way I have ever been able to test what real performance will be like in a given game or rendering in a given program is to play that game or render in that program. Even built-in benchmarks like in HL2 don't seem to take gameplay into account well enough. While (at best) benchmarks can be a help in deciding what to buy in a very general way, I have learned to be skeptical and trust my experience only. Even framerate monitors in games often don't reflect the smoothness of the experience of the game. Rift would show around 30-40 FPS, WoW would show 75-100, yet Rift would seem to feel far smoother.
I think b4dc0d3r was using someone else's program or working on an OSS project, not writing his own (obviously he doesn't like how these exceptions worked, so I don't think he wrote them to do that). If he's speaking as a user, I can understand the thinking of the original programmer; an end-user isn't going to know what to do with a detailed error message, and I have often written exceptions to be both logged and then passed up to another, different error message for the user to see that has:
This application has encountered an error! Error # Detailed information on this error has been logged at/path/to/log
This is so the user can tell support what error they got, or the user can be asked to copy/paste or send it in an email, etc.
Not saying you're wrong, I'm saying that thinking about the UX for errors can be a good idea.
We've been looking into the EU, too. My wife has family in Denmark, so we would at least have some help, there. I've decided, after years of being able to make it as a freelance coder and selling a story here and there, that I am going to go back and do a bit more school to make me more attractive to employers. Then I am going to shoot for a job with a multi-national with branches in the EU. Stay where I am, do my best to wow them, wait out however long I need to, then apply for a transfer. Then bang...we get to move AND the whole citizenship issue is dealt with. I keep working and just wait out the various prerequisites and then apply for citizenship. This seems like the best way to make it happen.
The other possibility, of course, is that thing get bad enough in the US to where I could reasonably ask for asylum from another developed country and do the refugee thing. In any case, I'm smart enough to know the opening act of "The Fall of Rome, Part 2: The American Years". I want out before it gets to the "burning libraries and killing scientists as witches" stage of collapse into the New Dark Ages.
I read that story and truly enjoyed it. My wife felt it dragged, but she has less of a taste for harder science fiction.
I thought one of the most interesting moments was when the girls from the AU community are explaining their society to the protagonist and he just can't understand at first...he keeps asking if they are going to give him a job.
Slashdot Mirror
No, the First Amendment means nothing. What are you, new?
But...but...Raptor Jesus went extinct for your sins!
That was pretty funny. Were you not anon, I would mod up.
No serious military forces, no manageable infrastructure, a single banking cartel, a single trade cartel, etc. It's even less reasonable than Herbert's galaxy-spanning feudalism; in that case, at least, nodes of infrastructure surrounding a noble family basically dealt with their own affairs. It's reasonable to manage one planet, so long as you have the right technology and people. But a republic (or an empire) with a single governmental structure spanning an entire galaxy with almost no real infrastructure? Not possible.
Yup. A few TOS episodes (Charlie X, The Empath, etc) had people with mental abilities, and once Spock and Kirk replicated the conditions, they gained the abilities (Plato's Stepchildren). They would have looked down on the idea that people used these abilities and a religion surrounding them to essentially create a theocracy. Even in the Old Republic and Clone War eras, if you're a Jedi you're automatically a general...wtf? A padawan is a general? She's like 15!
X-Box controllers are hard to miss. Mine is pink! ;)
But I have never heard anyone complain that they couldn't use voice commands to control their viewing.
This. Microsoft has a long history of adding features no one ever asked for and ignoring the features they do.
Because it's a celebration...?
See, I just don't get this. I use the streaming every day. What exactly are all of you people who have this opinion trying to watch?
Ahhh...Core Wars! I played that when I was like 11. It was awesome.
If I could mod on this thread, I would mod you up. Well-said.
This is a fundamentally immature, grade-school bully's way of thinking. "I have to make sure I look tough, otherwise everyone will beat me up." It's the attempt to look tough all the time that puts others off and makes enemies all over the planet.
How about trying to look civilized? Is that nearly as important? How about looking reasonable or intelligent? Nope, it's all about looking tough...which is exactly why the actual civilized countries (you know...the ones that have existed long enough to know "looking tough" isn't nearly as important as, say, having a functional infrastructure) can't take us seriously no matter how much we puff ourselves up. No one cares. War is a stupid way and simplistic way of trying to solve complex social, economic, and philosophical problems. It's just like the bully beating up the nerd for "talking smart" to him. Sure the bully will win on the physical level in that moment...but that was never really the level that counted, and the nerd will have the last laugh as he makes sure to order his fries "fresh and piping hot" from the bully a few years later.
And so we destroy ourselves and the great American experiment comes to an end less than three centuries later. The bully of the world flails and screams while no one takes it seriously and the world moves on. We can't solve our problems with infrastructure, the economy, the government...hell, we can't even deal with diversity in our own citizenry. The white and entitled get more and more anxious every year as it looks like their privilege is getting challenged. We can't balance the budget, half the population doesn't believe in basic science, can't do math, and can barely read. But we can kick ass! We have the biggest, baddest weapons and a fighting force second to none! It doesn't matter that we're stupid, barbaric, brutes...we can kick their ass! Yeah! America! America! America!
The whole time the EU, Canada, and the rest of the First World is hiding their smile and shaking their heads to each other, like the adults at a family reunion while the drunk, belligerent, mildly retarded country cousin keeps wandering around, shoving people, and demanding "What?! What?! Wanna fight about it?!? Huh?! Huh?! I'm not a paper tiger! I'm tough, I'm tough, see?!? SEE?!?!"
I think you are either misunderstanding or are being purposely obtuse. The poster is basically saying the US is morally equivalent to that fascist (why the capital?) dictatorship ruled over by a mass-murdering psychopath. Except it's ruled over by a whole lot of mass-murdering psychopaths. The very fact that you completely ignore the point involving Iraqi civilians killed by US soldiers in a war we started to "liberate" a people who never asked for our help or interference pretty much proves their point.
Your opinions of other country's governments shouldn't get to dictate their governments. To say that the US is somehow special, that out of all the world, the US has the right to dictate terms to other countries about how they govern, is nothing but jingoism and crass exceptionalism. It just doesn't pass the straight-face test. We are not special, we are not different, the rules aren't different for us.
Do you think it would be just fine for, say, the EU to "liberate" the US citizens from their corporate and governmental masters? There are plenty of people in this country who hate and despise the current regime, just like the Iraqis who "cheer" us for coming and bombing their homes. I, for one, would welcome it, I'm a US citizen, isn't that equivalent to the Iraqis who are "happy" the US came and got rid of Saddam? Why would it be different? US authorities torture, murder, and ignore the law to get what they want, and there is a partnership between the government and corporations...that sounds pretty fascist (by the actual definition of fascism, written by the person who started the movement, Mussolini) to me. Why shouldn't other countries come and "liberate" us?
You complain about moral relativism...what else is it when you think we're special, that the US has special rights and privileges that no other nation has? If you want actual moral absolutism, you have to judge your own country by the same rules you judge others, and what you say is good and right to do to others must apply equally to the US. If it is acceptable for the US to attack and displace another nation's government because we don't agree with it, then it is acceptable for other countries to do it to us. And don't cry "But we're America, we're the good guys. They don't have any REAL reason to liberate us because we're RIGHT". Every country thinks they are right. Every form of government claims it's the right one.
Of course, you can just choose to roll with your jingoism and say "But the US is REALLY right." I don't know how you would justify that, other than on the basis of it being your "team", but Americans have historically always been really good at moralizing at others while having just as dubious a moral standing as anyone else, so good luck with that.
And every time someone in the US uses metric, the terrorists have won.
Ah, thanks, that explains everything.
I download stuff from Oracle all the time. What were they downloading that makes them evil wrong and bad?
And yes, I did read the linked articles. All it says was they downloaded software and docs as part of offering support to their clients. Like I said, I do that all the time. What were they downloading that makes it illegal?
That happened a long time ago. This at least concedes that human minds are incapable of (or unwilling to) deal with that level of complexity, so we are going to use machines to deal with it. It's honest, and it might even work for a while, further avoiding the inevitable consequences of our economic system. That's all we can really hope for. Nothing can save an economy that doesn't really make anything, yet uses more resources than anyone else.
It's not replacing humans, it just improves profit making for those who want to trade. It's only one part of stock exchanges. That's fine too - if you can come up with an advanced algorithm that nets you profit, sure use it. Everyone on slashdot would.
It's not replacing humans yet. And that's fine. When it does, investors will simply move to a higher level of abstraction and a new level of economic engagement will come into being. Larger, more subtle patterns will become apparent and we will simply have a new game to play.
The only way I have ever been able to test what real performance will be like in a given game or rendering in a given program is to play that game or render in that program. Even built-in benchmarks like in HL2 don't seem to take gameplay into account well enough. While (at best) benchmarks can be a help in deciding what to buy in a very general way, I have learned to be skeptical and trust my experience only. Even framerate monitors in games often don't reflect the smoothness of the experience of the game. Rift would show around 30-40 FPS, WoW would show 75-100, yet Rift would seem to feel far smoother.
I think b4dc0d3r was using someone else's program or working on an OSS project, not writing his own (obviously he doesn't like how these exceptions worked, so I don't think he wrote them to do that). If he's speaking as a user, I can understand the thinking of the original programmer; an end-user isn't going to know what to do with a detailed error message, and I have often written exceptions to be both logged and then passed up to another, different error message for the user to see that has:
This is so the user can tell support what error they got, or the user can be asked to copy/paste or send it in an email, etc.
Not saying you're wrong, I'm saying that thinking about the UX for errors can be a good idea.
We've been looking into the EU, too. My wife has family in Denmark, so we would at least have some help, there. I've decided, after years of being able to make it as a freelance coder and selling a story here and there, that I am going to go back and do a bit more school to make me more attractive to employers. Then I am going to shoot for a job with a multi-national with branches in the EU. Stay where I am, do my best to wow them, wait out however long I need to, then apply for a transfer. Then bang...we get to move AND the whole citizenship issue is dealt with. I keep working and just wait out the various prerequisites and then apply for citizenship. This seems like the best way to make it happen.
The other possibility, of course, is that thing get bad enough in the US to where I could reasonably ask for asylum from another developed country and do the refugee thing. In any case, I'm smart enough to know the opening act of "The Fall of Rome, Part 2: The American Years". I want out before it gets to the "burning libraries and killing scientists as witches" stage of collapse into the New Dark Ages.
Thank you for that. I am always interested in hearing the perspective of people from outside my own little world.
Me, too, and I live here. :(
Anyone want to help a brother-geek (and his sister-geek wife) emigrate?
We've walked on the moon.
Preventing wealth from controlling politics isn't possible even in theory.
I read that story and truly enjoyed it. My wife felt it dragged, but she has less of a taste for harder science fiction.
I thought one of the most interesting moments was when the girls from the AU community are explaining their society to the protagonist and he just can't understand at first...he keeps asking if they are going to give him a job.